March 2020

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March 2020

April 2020

May 2020

From School Administration

Typically, this time of year is marred with a lot of starts and stops due to weather-related school closures, late arrivals, and illnesses, in addition to scheduled closings already on the calendar. With the conclusion of a snow-free February, we are enjoying the benefits of instructional continuity this year! Hopefully, we will continue to have that continuity throughout the month of March before Spring Break.

We are entering our second of six five-day weeks in a row on Monday. On that note, this is a great time to review our behavioral expectations and reinforce expectations both at school and at home. We find that children need those reinforcements and reminders at this time of the school year. Please take the time to review our behavioral expectations below (PBIS). By reiterating the importance of our ROAR behaviors, we can maximize our children's time in school and in their classes with limited or no disruptions related to behaviors. This helps maintain a positive and productive teaching and learning environment for everyone. Hopefully, March will come in like a lamb and leave the ROAR for outstanding student behaviors and achievement.

Thank you for continuing to be great partners in education!

Ed Cosentino, Principal

Sonia Hurd, Assistant Principal

NEW INFORMATION

Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS)

Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) is an important aspect of Clemens Crossing and our students. PBIS is an approach to student discipline that is proactive instead of reactive.

The staff of Clemens Crossing Elementary School is committed to working with students and their families to promote a safe and nurturing environment in all school settings.

What is a PBIS Program?

Below are the guiding principles of Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS):

PBIS is a behavioral support system to promote and recognize positive behavior.

The program rewards students for exhibiting positive behavior.

Expectations, language, and consequences concerning behavior are consistent throughout the school.

The program promotes the development of intrinsic motivation.

Part of a successful schoolwide PBIS program is to have a school-based committee. Our PBIS committee monitors data related to any consequences (see below) to determine if there are trends associated with any misbehavior (location, time of day, or type of misbehavior). If there are trends, the committee and administration discuss interventions to change the behavior. Additionally, the committee discusses areas of improvement and how to celebrate students' positive behaviors.

Please take some time to read about the components of our PBIS program at Clemens Crossing below. Our PBIS program has been part of Clemens Crossing since 2006. We are one of 840 PBIS schools in Maryland and one of 66 schools in Howard County. Additionally, our PBIS program has been recognized by Maryland PBIS each year.

ROAR Tickets

Students who are following the school rules and displaying appropriate behavior may be recognized for their efforts by receiving ROAR Tickets from any member of the school staff.

Staff members distribute tickets to students to recognize their positive behavior.

Once received, the students collect their tickets to trade in for various rewards.

Rewards are special privileges the students can earn. A few examples are sitting in a special seat for the day, being first to pick classroom jobs, or lunch with a staff member or administrator.

Students are also recognized when they earn 50, 75, and 100 ROAR tickets. At 50, they receive a certificate and have their picture taken and displayed on the bulletin board. At 75, they earn a coupon for the school store, and at 100, they earn a wristband and are recognized at a PEP rally.

Students with exemplary behavior will participate in quarterly celebrations!

What does ROAR stand for?

Climbing Cougars

Weekly ACE Award Winners

Students who earn an ACE Award get their picture taken as a group. Teachers write a positive note about each student. Mrs. Rogers, Mrs. Hurd, or Mr. Cosentino call each ACE Award Winners' parent/guardian to share the positive comment from the teacher. ACE Award winners get an ACE Award charm and a coupon for a Smoothie King Kids Cup (Wilde Lake location only).

Bulletin Board for ACE Award Winners

The ACE Award Winners Bulletin Board is displayed in the front hall. This shows the groups of students (one per homeroom class) who earn the Weekly ACE Award.

Climbing Cougars

Weekly ACE Award Winners

Students who earn an ACE Award get their picture taken as a group. Teachers write a positive note about each student. Mrs. Rogers, Mrs. Hurd, or Mr. Cosentino call each ACE Award Winners' parent/guardian to share the positive comment from the teacher. ACE Award winners get an ACE Award charm and a coupon for a Smoothie King Kids Cup (Wilde Lake location only).

Bulletin Board for ACE Award Winners

The ACE Award Winners Bulletin Board is displayed in the front hall. This shows the groups of students (one per homeroom class) who earn the Weekly ACE Award.

Consequences for Inappropriate Behavior

Students have been taught the school rules for classroom and non-classroom settings.

All students are told what the expected behaviors or tasks are in each classroom. If a child does not exhibit the expected behavior, any of the following strategies may be used to help redirect and reteach that behavior:

Individual verbal warning with an explanation of expected behavior.

Timeout in the classroom.

Timeout in a different classroom or the pod area.

Students are given an opportunity to calm down and reflect on their behavior by completing a “Cool Out” form.

Minor Incident Report (MIR) completed and sent home to parents/guardians to be signed and returned the following day.

If the behavior still does not improve, an administrator will be called in to intervene.

*Certain actions, such as fighting, using inappropriate language, harassment and threats warrant immediate administrative involvement and can follow-up with a formal Disciplinary Referral Form.

How Can You Help at Home?

Please review the information on this page with your child.

Ask your child to tell you the school rules.

Ask your child to discuss ways that he or she can use these rules to help them to learn and participate in school.

Ask your child how his/her behavior affects others.

Discuss ways that your child can be a helpful and kind classmate.

Discuss ways that these rules can be used at home and in the community.

Youth Art Month 2020

The Council for Art Education (CFAE) administers Youth Art Month. Youth Art Month encourages support for quality school art programs and promotes art material safety. The Council for Art Education (CFAE) administers the program at the national level. The program provides a medium for recognizing skills developed through visual arts experiences, unlike any other curriculum subjects, including:

· Problem solving

· Creativity

· Observation

· Communication

We are fortunate to be part of a school system that values the arts! Here at CCES, we have a student-based Youth Art Month Committee. Congratulations to our YAM Committee Members, 5th Graders: Eva Alston, Mallary Bellows, Andrew Jamal, Adelaide Pax, Abigail Taymoorian, Joel Varghese, Liam Conroy, Savanna Harrold, Victoria Jaramillo-Martinez, Sebastian Kolb, Elina Par, Kasey Chandler, Sofia Hufft, Jonas Laney, Adiela Medina. YAM will be celebrated in two major ways. The first being a banner that the committee designed and painted, that is hung outside of the Art Room in the hallway. The second is daily “Artist of the Day” announcements given by each student celebrating the life and work of an artist they’ve chosen to highlight. Along with the announcement, students will create posters featuring those artists that will line the hallway outside of the Art Room as well. Given time and schedule conflicts, we will start our announcements, and the banner will be hung on Thursday, March 5th. Come on by, check out the hard work of this fabulous group of students, and join in on the celebration.

Save the Date - Open House 2020

Please save the date for our annual open houses for the 2020-21 school year.

Kindergarten Open House

Friday, August 21, 2020 from 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.

First Grade through Fifth Grade

Friday, August 21, 2020 from 2:30 p.m. to 3:15 p.m.

We are still working on logistics for Back-to-School Nights and will notify the community in the Spring.

HCPSS Budget Process

The BOE will now submit its budget requests to Howard County Executive Calvin Ball in early March. Dr. Ball is scheduled in April to submit his proposed budget to the County Council, which will then adopt the Howard County budget in May. Either the County Executive or the County Council may not fully fund the request made by the Board of Education.

If you would like to share your opinions about the HCPSS 2020-21 budget, such as maintaining class size, ongoing support for all academic and operational areas or continuing instructional programs at current levels, please contact the County Executive and the County Council.

Please consider testifying before the County Executive to share your opinions about the HCPSS budget. Registration opens February 27; details linked below. If you can’t attend the hearing, you can submit written testimony.

A reminder that the County does not fund specific programs (music, G/T, etc) so it’s important that any testimony relates to County’s overall funding of the Board of Education’s requested budget, not support for specific programs.

COUNTY EXECUTIVE: Save the date to come to the County Executive public hearing on the budget. March 12 at the George Howard Building 6 pm. Access online sign-ups available on February 27th, by clicking here.

COUNTY COUNCIL: The first public hearing on the operating budget will take place on April 22. More details on registration will be available soon.

Coronavirus Prevention and Response Measures

There has been a lot of attention in the news and on social media related to the 2019 Novel Coronavirus, or COVID-19, a new respiratory virus first identified in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China. This is an evolving situation, and HCPSS will follow the guidance of the Howard County Health Department who will continue to provide updated information and guidance to HCPSS leadership as it becomes available.

The school system has posted information on the website related to the Coronavirus. There was also a community message that was shared via email yesterday.

It continues to be important that we are all doing everything that we can to keep our children and classrooms healthy. The Howard County Health Department officials have shared several recommendations to ensure that we are taking appropriate and effective actions to stay healthy and prevent the spread of all person-to-person viruses. These precautions also have been shared by the CDC, and include:

1. Washing your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. If soap and water are not available, use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer

2. Avoiding touching your eyes, nose, and mouth with unwashed hands

3. Avoiding close contact with people who are sick

4. Staying home when you are sick

5. Covering your cough or sneeze with a tissue, then throw the tissue in the trash

6. Cleaning and disinfecting frequently-touched objects and surfaces

If you have concerns regarding your child’s health, please contact our health room. Thank you for all of your efforts to help us maintain a safe and healthy school. As always if you have additional questions, please feel free to reach out to us.

Cub Scout Pack 618

Pack 618 has a number of events coming up. All girls and boys are welcome to check out the activities. On March 21 from 1-4 pm, Pack 618 will be shooting off model rockets at the CCES field. On April 18, the pack will be touring the Naval Academy in Annapolis. Finally, the pack is planning a trip to Hershey Park on June 14th with discounted tickets being purchased during March.

INFORMATION WORTH REPEATING

PTA Meeting w/Board of Education Candidate Sezin Palmer

Wednesday, March 11th, 6:30pm

10320 Quarterstaff Road

Columbia, MD

A Story Called Kindness Poster Contest - Entries Due April 1

All students in grades K–12 are invited to design a poster to illustrate a scene from your life story where you’ve shown someone kindness or offered a helping hand. Students may enter as an individual or as part of a group. Full details, including entry criteria and submission information, are available online.

Crafty Cougars

Do you love to do crafts? Does making posters, pamphlets, or decorations sound fun? Then join the new group called the Crafty Cougars! The PTA runs many amazing events all year round, but they need help with things such as decorations and posters. The Crafty Cougars will get requests from the PTA and help out as needed. No commitment is required, help out when you can! Please email Rachael Kelly at rachael.christine@gmail.com if you are interested in helping out.

Supplies Needed

It has been a rough few weeks with the flu and other illnesses. Classrooms are in need of hand sanitizer and tissues. Please consider donating those items to your child's class.

KINDERGARTEN & NEW FIRST GRADE REGISTRATION STARTS MARCH 9

Kindergarten Registration begins Monday, March 9 through Friday, March 13 at Clemens Crossing Elementary School. Children who will be five years old as of September 1, 2020, must enroll in Kindergarten for the 2020-2021 school year. Registration will take place daily from 9:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at CCES Front Office. No appointment is necessary. We will have one evening registration time available, by appointment only, on March 11 prior to our PTA meeting.

You will need to bring the following documents:

Birth certificate, birth registration or passport. Note: If presenting a passport, you will need to also provide proof of parental relationship.

Current immunization record - must be a print out from the pediatrician and signed.

Deed or lease to your home

Current utility bill

Photo ID of parent/guardian registering the student

Please visit the Howard County Public School System website for complete information about enrollment and registration. Please follow steps 1-4 at home and online before finalizing the process in step 5 at the school. You may begin the online registration now.

Message from the Media Center About Visiting Author Duncan Tonatiuh

Dear CCES families:

Thanks to the generous support of our PTA, author/illustrator Duncan Tonatiuh will be visiting CCES on Wednesday, March 18, 2020. Students will be learning about Duncan’s books and illustrations for the next few weeks in Library Media class. His work is inspired by ancient Mexican art, particularly that of the Mixtec codex. His aim is to create images and stories that honor the past, but that are relevant to people, especially children, nowadays.

We invite you to purchase books on your own and send them to the Media Center for the author to autograph. The books will be returned to students the afternoon of his visit or the following day. Feel free to click the author information below to find out more about Duncan Tonatiuh.

Please attach a copy of this form (see link below) when your child sends a book, or books, to the Media Center. The media staff will respond with an email confirmation when we receive the books. The deadline to send books to the Media Center is Friday, March 13.

Calling All Coders and Female Engineers!

How Girls Code is looking for female members of the community to come talk to our How Girls Code students, grades 1st-3rd, about being a coder or engineer. We would love for you to share how you became interested in your career, how you use coding, math, and STEM-related skills and what it is like working in your field. We are looking for 15-20 minutes time slots on any Wednesday afternoon between 4:15-5:15 pm the weeks of February 26th- April 22nd. Please email Mrs. Gelinas, if you or someone you know would be interested in coming to chat with our girls. Rachel_Gelinas@hcpss.org

CCES International Night

Friday, March 13th, 6:30pm

10320 Quarterstaff Road

Columbia, MD

SPONSOR NEEDED for Student Planner/Datebooks for 20-21

Up until this year, the Howard County Public School System provided students with school planners in grades 2 through 5. Due recent budget cuts, the school system will no longer fund this expense.

It is up to us, as a school, to fund and purchase the student planner/date books. The approximate cost for our school is $1,000. Since we are not permitted to charge families the cost of the student planners, we are looking to get a funding sponsor. The sponsor will get credit and a page in the book to advertise. If you know of a company willing to sponsor this expense, please email Ms. Stacey Wells, the principal's secretary.